


sea water

by scarsimp



Series: peppermint candy [1]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Bittersweet, F/M, Good Love, LOVE!!, M/M, Nightmares, Trauma, Winry POV, bc i said fuck the ending, ling deserves to be happy okay, ling was a kid too!, this takes place post canon, trusting love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:35:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26378917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scarsimp/pseuds/scarsimp
Summary: It made tonight startlingly strange. The air was cool and crisp and normally Ling would have huddled up to one of them, yet he was almost deathly still. Ed and her were both still awake— once an insomniac, always one; Ling always dozed off first— and the looks he was sending the old prince made worry bloom in her chest.(Ling has nightmares.)
Relationships: Edward Elric/Ling Yao, Edward Elric/Winry Rockbell, Edward Elric/Winry Rockbell/Ling Yao, Winry Rockbell/Ling Yao
Series: peppermint candy [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1918831
Comments: 5
Kudos: 27





	sea water

**Author's Note:**

> This ship deserves more rep

Ling moved around a lot in his sleep. 

It was the first thing Winry noticed when they all started to share a bed. (And wasn't that a crazy notion? Two men she loved, safe.  _ With her.  _ Whole.) He twitched, curling in on himself only to stretch his arms out to wrap around one of them; kicking blankets off and pulling the back up. Restless, almost the opposite of how he was when he was awake. 

_ (Almost the opposite. There were times when he was shivery in her arms and weak, face ashy and sweat soaked. His eyes would dim and something in her would too.) _

It made tonight startlingly strange. The air was cool and crisp and normally Ling would have huddled up to one of them, yet he was almost deathly still. Ed and her were both still awake— once an insomniac, always one; Ling always dozed off first— and the looks he was sending the old prince made worry bloom in her chest. 

She opened her mouth to say something, anything, but before the words even formed Ling suddenly jerked. Ed tensed across from her and Ling said something in Xingese that she couldn't make out. His hands twisted in the blankets, more claws than fingers as he jerked again; she could feel Ed's eyes on her and shook her head. 

The words stung in her mouth as she said them, "Don't wake him up. It's a nightmare."

" _ What—" _

"It's a medical rule, Ed." Winry internally grimaced, wishing she could break them. "Don't wake a patient from a nightmare. It makes them worse." He glared at her, but there was no heat in it. Gnawed at his lip, stared at Ling as if something in him was dying. 

She felt the same. 

Barely five minutes passed but they felt like an eternity, each second stretching across a year at a time. He kicked his legs, threw his head back as if to pull away from someone. 

_ (Ling hasn't said much about the way he grew up but she knows enough. She's seen the scars scraping across his body and has touched them with her own hands; mapped each like they were her own. Winry had never been a violent person but knowing what he had been through made her one.)  _

Ling woke up like he was drowning— a sharp gasp, a noise in between a sob and a scream, his hands shaking as he brought them to his face. He breathed thickly through a tight throat and curled in on himself, Winry watching as if it was a trainwreck. She held a hand out, not knowing if she wanted to touch him or hold him— but he flinched away before she could. 

_ (Just like Ed did— something long dead and decaying in his eyes as he jerked like she plans to strike him. Something curdles in her and she wants nothing more than to tear the world apart for them both.)  _

"Ling…?" She asked, her voice stronger than she actually felt. Firm in the way she is falling apart. He doesn't answer and she falls further. Ed is silent, a statue as she looks over to him.

His eyes are warm and confused but he is barely breathing. She mentally begged him to say something. 

"Ling." She tries again, not trying to touch him but shifting to try and see his face. He is cowering in on himself and her blood boils. 

Not at him,  _ never _ at him. At the demons that raised him and hurt him over and over again, and the people who looked at a child and saw competition. At the monsters that saw a little boy and felt bloodlust. Never again, never again. Not as long as she was alive. 

_ (Winry wasn't a fighter but by God she would if they asked her to. Unstitch the fine lining of the Earth and let it bleed out if something happened to her family.  _ _ Never again. _ _ )  _

His face is sweaty and swollen from salty tears, his palms pressed against his cheeks as if to hold himself together. The shivers wracking his body are too similar to his fainting spells to give Winry any modum of comfort. 

He is paranoid in that moment, and Ed is watching him like he was some sort of animal, and Winry swears her heart  _ hurts. _ She is a healer but she isn't this kind and instead is left helpless. "Ling," Ed's voice is rough with some sort of emotion she can't recognize, and his face is set. "Can you look at me?"

Ling shakes his head and Ed raises a brow, pushing past Winry's own fear and settling his right hand on the prince's shoulder. "You know we don't care if you look a mess— you've seen us both cry plenty of times." 

Ed's voice is thickening as he speaks and Winry grits her teeth, her own eyes stinging. "You don't have to be strong all the time," he murmurs, bending down to press a kiss to the top of Ling's head. "You never have to be strong again if you don't want to. You've done enough." Ed's voice breaks and Winry feels tears on her cheeks. "You are enough." 

She feels herself nodding, finally speaking. "He's right," Ling starts to shake his head and she forces herself to continue. " _ No _ , he's right. You are enough as you are. You always will be. We love you," she scrubs the tears off her cheeks. "We love you, we always will." 

Ling tried to speak once, choked on something bitter and tried again, and only when he feels Ed's callused palm on his shoulder and sees Winry's worried gaze does he… break. He sniffled pitifully, scrubbing at his nose with a sleeve even as tears start to thicken down his face. Winry moves to pull him close but Ed beats her to it, wrapping him up against the broad of his chest like he wanted to tuck him in and never let him go. 

She feels the same. It's strong in her mind and she hugs round him tightly, her arms holding Ed as well and for a moment it's just them, and nothing else. The world is silent, the stars are dark, nothing matters but Ling, and Ed, and the way she loves them so. "You are enough," her voice cracks down the middle, and she can feel Ed nodding even as Ling sobs. His voice is something hurt, bleeding out and infected. "You are  _ enough." _

_ (And if tomorrow Ling wakes up again, soft and placid in a way he wasn't before. Trusting in a way he wasn't before— well, neither she nor Ed mention is and instead will bring him breakfast and hold him tight and press firm, sure kisses to his forehead and cheeks and nose—) _

She held the world in her two arms in that moment, and prayed they were enough. 


End file.
